English

Permutations minimizing the number of collinear triples

Combinatorics 2025-01-07 v1

Abstract

We characterize the permutations of Fq\mathbb{F}_q whose graph minimizes the number of collinear triples and describe the lexicographically-least one, affirming a conjecture of Cooper-Solymosi. This question is closely connected to Dudeney's No-3-in-a-Line problem, the Heilbronn triangle problem, and the structure of finite plane Kakeya sets. We discuss a connection with complete sets of mutually orthogonal latin squares and state a few open problems primarily about general finite affine planes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.02331,
  title  = {Permutations minimizing the number of collinear triples},
  author = {Joshua Cooper and Jack Hyatt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.02331},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

8 pages, 0 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:56:19.072Z